Friday, August 4, 2017

Staunton, August 4 – Yesterday, a
remarkable thing happened. Russia’s economic development ministry explained the
rise in mortality rates in Russia by pointing to the consequences of the
cutbacks in health care there that have been imposed by what Vladimir Putin
euphemistically calls health care “optimization.”

To explain the five percent rise
instead of the planned decrease in mortality rates among Russians, the ministry
in a 105-page report pointed to precisely the changes in Russian health care
that have occurred because of the significant cutbacks in funding and closing
of facilities Putin has sponsored (government.ru/media/files/i0d1XvJka1R0C7eEgp2p5nHHhbnHyVH8.pdf).

Specifically, it said that “in
connection with the low rates of activity of the primary link of health care in
the early diagnosis and treatment … the delayed hospitalization of patients
with serious problems … [and] the untimely appeal of the population for medical
help, an increase in the category ‘deaths from all causes’ (per 1000
population)” rose from 12.3 to 12.9.

In calling attention to this, the
Newsru agency says that Rosstat had recently released statistics which suggest
that the mortality rate will be even higher this year. During the first five
months of 2017, 111,800 Russians died, more than twice as many as did in the analogous
period of 2016 when 41,600 did (classic.newsru.com/russia/03aug2017/mortality.html).

The news agency also recalls that in
January, Russia’s health ministry said that it was revising its projected
mortality rate figures upward and its life expectancy projections downward for
the year ahead (classic.newsru.com/russia/26jan2017/unhealthyministry.html),
thus directly contradicting Vladimir Putin’s recent upbeat statements.

And the outlet also notes that the
Health Foundation just a few months earlier drew a direction connection between
the rise in mortality rates in Russia and reductions in the number of hospitals
and hospital beds available to the population, again challenging the Kremlin’s claims in that regard (classic.newsru.com/russia/21oct2016/stat.html).